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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMH" data-source="post: 2177986" data-attributes="member: 24945">A very few insects can go dormant after losing 90%+ of their body water and tartegrades (or water bear) is famous for this. It is sort of like what they did to the aboleth- except water bears can live for years, not forever in this state. Just add water to revive them.Many adult insects can go for long periods without eating- a species of cockroach can survive for half its adult lifespan with minimal water and no food. This is the way I can see how vermin should be able to populate sections of the underdark where little else can survive.Aquatic insects breath air by several methods- gills (which can be found in the rectum of the dragonfly naiad), tubes (usually off the rear end), and bubbles. Small insects hold these bubbles anc use them as pseudogills, whereas medium and large insects must return to the surface to restore the oxygen content of the bubble.Though most insect coloration is due to pigments, there are some that use one of three methods of physical ways of color protection (scattering, interferance and diffraction). Using this, one can add (ex) blur effects and possibly color spray to any vermin.One thing I have seen once is conditional morphs for monsters (it is in twisted lore). Aphids have several morphs throughout their life history- the most common is a parthenogenic female (no males to produce offspring). When fall arrives or overpopulation occurs and space is limited, winged males and females are produced and they fly to find new plants to colonize.Leaving inverts for a bit, there is a very common protozoan parasite of cats and humans that increase the strength of the host's immune system- to keep it alive for the parasite's use (they survive in a cyst form).Though terrestrial inverts are small, there are very large marine animals. The longest was a worm that was 60 meters long and a recent discovery put the giant squid as (at least) the second largest squid. The new one is 10%+ larger.</blockquote>

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